Duo draws from old-school tunes

In a basement studio in his Pickerington home, Jason Rawls gingerly set the turntable needle on an old record.

In a basement studio in his Pickerington home, Jason Rawls gingerly set the turntable needle on an old record.

"Yeah, this just sounds good," the 34-year-old producer known as J Rawls said while the sultry sounds of jazz guitarist George Benson floated through the room.

"You can feel it."

Inspired by the grooves, Rawls featured a snippet of a 1968 Benson tune on his latest album -- a joint project with Kenesha Nicole Coulibaly, an East Side recording artist who calls herself Middle Child.

It offers a prime example of their work: older soul melodies blended with modern wordplay.

On a track called Music Over Madness (which features the catchy Benson loop), Coulibaly chides an industry rife with lyrics of greed, sex and vulgarity:

Y'all rather keep flooding the stations

With that poison ghetto noise

You can't explain to me

Why we're selling out our kids for them dividends.

"Everything is from the roots," said the 32-year-old Coulibaly, who grew up idolizing Elton John, Prince and Stevie Wonder.

"You bring back a bit of the old and put it with some of the new, it's just that much better."

Set for a June 10 release, the musical buffet Rawls & Middle heaps spoonfuls of soul, rhythm and blues, hip-hop, salsa and rock on a 17-track disc.

The pair met in 2003, when Cincinnati rapper B.J. Digby needed female backing vocals for an album Rawls was producing.

An associate suggested a singer named Middle Child.

"He said, 'She can be here in 15 minutes,' " Rawls said. "And she was here in 10."

With the Youngstown native singing impromptu over his music, the chemistry was instant and a friendship was born.

The collaboration led to several pairings -- including four tracks on the 2005 Rawls album, The Essence of Soul -- as well as guest spots with other artists.

Joining forces for a full-length effort was a natural decision.

"She just blows you away," said Rawls, who has produced beats for big-name acts such as the Beastie Boys, Biz Markie, Talib Kweli and Mos Def.

He also represents half of the hip-hop duo Lone Catalysts and runs a record label, Polar Entertainment.

Throughout a year, much of it with Coulibaly pregnant, the two munched Chipotle burritos and played soul records as they scribbled lyrics.

"This record is going to make you feel good," said Coulibaly, who spent three years as a rapper on a small independent label before leaving to create a production company with her brother in 2001.

She later released the alternative-soul album Barefeet & Pregnant and gave performances alongside artists such as Ginuwine, the Isley Brothers and Angie Stone.

Next, Coulibaly and Rawls are going global: A two-week performance tour with stops in France, Germany and the Netherlands will begin next month.

Tracks from Rawls & Middle are getting airplay on BBC 1 Radio, where this month Rawls was heard with Gilles Peterson -- a British disc jockey credited for launching early efforts by Jamiroquai and Erykah Badu, among others.

Peterson called Coulibaly "brilliant" and Rawls "a legend."

Back home, the pair has at least one high-profile fan: Mayor Michael B. Coleman.

"Columbus should be proud to see a young, homegrown talent like Middle Child making her own music and being able to tour internationally with J Rawls," said Coleman, who introduced Coulibaly at ComFest in 2006 -- and even asked her to sing at his birthday party (which she did) a few years ago.

"I can't wait to get a copy of the new music."

Given their rising stars, the artists have other commitments, too.

Rawls, a business teacher at Linden-McKinley High School, is married with three sons, ages 9, 4 and 2.

Coulibaly, a married mom whose daughter was born in January, is pursuing a business degree online through the University of Phoenix.

Even though work is taking them far from home, neither plans a move.

Coulibaly, frustrated by the flight of others in creative fields, wants to promote Columbus as a hot spot.

"I've got so many different friends -- musicians, poets, actors -- and they say, 'Man, I'm going to Atlanta, New York,' " she said. "(As an artist), you've got to be mobile, anyway, so why not build something from here?"